SERMON II.

CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

MATTHEW Vii. 12.-Therefore all things, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.

ROMANS Xiii. 10.-Love is the fulfilling of the law.

1 TIMOTHY iv. 8.-Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

These three texts contain in their combination, the sum and substance of all moral philosophy. They comprise the essence, scope, tendency and sanction of that view of our social relations and obligations, which it was the mission of Christ to introduce into the world. The first is a practical rule, most easy of application. In default of a well digested system, or the opportunity of an elaborate calculation, it apprises every man of an efficient substitute to which he may have instantaneous recourse. And there are two remarkable advantages attending its use-1st. That it makes gross selfishness self-destructive. It taxes a man's efforts on behalf of others in the same proportion as he is desirous of taxing their efforts on behalf of himself. Therefore, on those who crave most of others, i. e., the most selfish, it imposes that they should do the most for others, i. e., be the most benevolent. The other advantage is, that it be

comes an increasingly efficient rule for the promotion of good to mankind, in proportion to the intellectual power of the being who acts upon it. The wiser a man is, the better he knows what to wish for from others for himself; the better is he directed by this rule to benefit others. He becomes, in its application, the agent of more extensive good. The second text quoted, declares the principle or spirit of that conduct which the first guides in the practice of. The rule to do as we would be done by, when its rationale is sought, resolves itself into the theory that 'love is the fulfilling of the law.' The rule conducts us to the principle, which, in turn, as it is understood, guides us to the more unerring and useful application of the rule. And to this, the third text adds, that which rule and principle alike require for ensuring their adoption, the adequate motive. That motive is of the most comprehensive and cogent description. It involves the happiness of the individual as its object; pleads the promise of God as its security; and extends over both the present and the future; the life that now is, and that which is to come.

It has been said, that what in one age is a truth of revelation, becomes a truth of reason in a subsequent age. And it is evident that such must be the tendency of all revealed truth. Revelation discovers; but it can only discover that which exists, and is comprehensible. Its discoveries may, therefore, be by reason eventually comprehended and demonstrated. The supernatural facts of the divine dispensations suggested thoughts which may be verified by experience, and become the subjects of natural demonstra 2*

tion. It was thus with the divine unity; which, at first associated with miracle, is now seen in nature; at first promulgated by authority, is now the dictate of rationality. And so it is with Christian morals, and the Christian principle of morality. In the light of the word of God, man has become able to see light, and the faculty and scope of his mental vision have been enlarged and strengthened by the uprising on the world of the Sun of Righteousness. God at first led the blind by a way which they knew not, that at length Christ might say, 'Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.' Christ's precepts came with, 'I say unto you,' that we might learn to say them to ourselves. Revelation is an anticipatory process. It did with the world what we do with children; suggest moral truth, which can never be known too soon, the very suggestion aiding the development of the powers which should in time achieve its demonstration. And the world is benefitted by the one process, as the child by the other. As the one implies a parent and a teacher, so does the other a Deity and a Saviour. Christ's mission by the spirit of God for healing, comfort and deliverance was in nothing more efficient than in his announcement of the principle and blessings of moral goodness; nor can that announcement ever have appeared so glorious, so worthy of God, so useful to man, as in the light shed upon it, in the demonstration of its truth and perfection by the highest maturity of reason and philosophy which the world has yet attained.

Christian morality is the true, sound and only morality; the morality of philosophical utility: that which

has for its rule the production of the greatest happiness of all, and for its result the highest and most enduring happiness of the individual. The principle of this morality, which is alike the morality of reason and revelation, of future blessedness and present usefulness, is laid deep in our very constitution. Its foundation is in the essentials of humanity, of intelligent existence. It is in the fact that our own highest happiness is linked with, and requires, the consciousness of promoting to the utmost the happiness of others. This is the law of happiness, which, if men degrade or violate, their pursuit of happiness is only vanity and vexation of spirit. That this can and does impart the purest and most enduring satisfaction is alike evidenced by the reflections of the philosopher, and the observations of experience. The very pleasures of sense have their greatest zest when social. Those of the heart are direct reflexes from others; beyond the boundaries of self must the imagination extend for its brightest regions; and intellectual truth delights by its discovery, as we behold its consequences flowing far and wide over human occupations and enjoyments. And the fact corresponds with these inferences from man's original constitution. It is no more in history than in nature, for an enlightened philanthropist to be a miserable man. To be good is to do good, and to do good is to receive good. Men are long in seeing this, because they regard externals so much more than what passes within; and because it is only as the mind becomes enlightened that it becomes susceptible of the best and purest kinds of enjoyment. A law resting only

on authority requires to be fenced with positive rewards and punishments. But as the requirement of the law is seen and understood to be really the pursuit of an interest, rewards and punishments resolve themselves into natural consequences. With the progress of reason, the notions of obligation, duty, obedience, become only the enlightened pursuit of happiness, according to those laws, material, mental, and moral, in conformity with which alone can happiness be realized. Not vainer was the alchemist's attempt, in ignorant defiance of the laws of nature, to transmute the baser metals into gold, than is theirs, who, in equal ignorance of the laws of mind, attempt to distil happiness from the baser passions and propensities of our nature. Happiness is not in wealth or splendor, power or famne. Its highest degree has probably

been realized under the worst outward circumstances; and he who acts consistently for the greatest happiness of all, will be sure to find his own included.

The beauty of this moral principle is, that it applies, with equal facility, to all the varying states of human existence. It belongs as much to our own country as to that in which Christ taught; as much to our own age as to that in which Christ lived. No condition of barbarism is below it; no pinnacle of civilization overtops it. It is the eternal summary of social morality. A collection of the precepts of the New Testament would show how the first preachers of Christianity applied it to their circumstances. In those precepts we should find some things universal, others peculiar; some duties indicated, such as temperance, diligence &c., which arise out of our nature;